Oh, and before I forget: Kanon is the cutest little Hakurei daughter ever. <3 I like Hitomi, too-- something about her "everyone always has a choice" line clicked with me.
Heh. I'll have to see about giving them a little more screen time before their next big piece.
How is Chireiden doing? Don't they still have the link with the Moriya Shrine they had in Hisoutensoku, or did that cease with the rest of Gensokyo's degraded alliances?
Chireiden in a general sense is actually doing perfectly well. This comes after Cats and Crows so Utsuho is a full goddess in her own right, and is powering the underground. With that, and the fact that Chireiden is slightly out of synch with Gensoukyo as the former hell, Chireiden pretty much has just been getting better and better.
However. since most of the underground youkai are despised by the above ground youkai for their powers most of the citizens of the Underground just don't leave. There are a few exceptions of course, but most stay at home and the majority of Gensoukyo (not the houses, but unaligned youkai) would pester them if they didn't.
Meanwhile the Tengu started locking down the mountain, the Kappa didn't resist, and the Moriya shrine became fairly isolated. While the goddesses aren't on bad terms with anyone, they can't really act within Gensoukyo without causing a war with the Tengu and losing their biggest source of faith. Utsuho and Orin still pop up and chat, and Kanako and Suwako occasionally drop in, but do to each parties isolation they can't do much other then sit about and drink tea.
And what is the connection between the Kotiya and Hakurei lines, exactly?
The two lines generally intermarried, given their constant contact and the fact that male Hakurei priests couldn't inherit. Hitomi and Kanon are decendants of Suwako, and the current Moriya shrine maiden has enough of the Hakurei line to maintain the border and use the yin yang orbs.
However the families are at odds again. Early on after the troubles started about half the Hakurei family switched to serving Kanako and Suwako as their primary deities. Worried that the boundary would be in danger if their faith switched, the Hakurei maiden at the time disowned them and destroyed the Moriya branch shrine. Further escalation was stopped by the relative weakness of the two powers, and the fact that the Tengu held the space between the two shrines. The enmity has died down, but the families are no longer close.
